Rhyl Flats

Wind farm layout

Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm is a 25 turbine wind farm approximately 8 km north east of Llandudno in North Wales. It is Wales' second offshore wind farm and the third offshore wind farm to be built within Liverpool Bay. It has a maximum rated output of 90 MW.

Construction

The Rhyl Flats project was initially developed by Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL) as part of the UK's Round 1 offshore wind farm programme. COWL received consent for the project in 2002, and in December 2002 the project was purchased by Npower Renewables (formerly National Wind Power and now a part of Innogy, a subsidiary of the German firm RWE), who were also developing the neighbouring North Hoyle and Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farms. Offshore construction work at Rhyl Flats began in July 2007. Foundation works was completed in August 2008.^[1] The completed project was officially opened on 2 December 2009.^[2]

North Hoyle was completed in 2003, just a few kilometres east of Rhyl Flats. The Round 1 projects were intended to act as testbeds; building the UK's understanding of offshore wind, whilst in total also providing well over 1000 MW of green generating capacity for the UK. All of the Round 1 offshore wind farms were limited to a maximum area of 10 km² (3.9 sq mi), and no more than 30 wind turbines.

The project uses three export cables.^[3]

Output

The first electricity was supplied by the site on 15 July 2009. The project consists of 25 Siemens Wind Power SWT-107-3.6 wind turbines, each rated at 3.6 MW capacity. This gives the project a maximum output of 90 MW; a third greater than the neighbouring North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm, but with five fewer wind turbines and spread over a smaller area. At the time of installation, Rhyl Flats is expected to generate enough electricity to power 60,000 homes on average.

Its levelised cost has been estimated at £126/MWh.^[4]

See also

1. ^ "Initial installation of Rhyl Flats wind farm completed". Reuters Events. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
2. ^ "RWE: Rhyl Flats inauguration press release" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2009.
3. ^ "npower To Start Turbine Construction At Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm - NS Energy". Retrieved 20 February 2022.
4. ^ Aldersey-Williams, John; Broadbent, Ian; Strachan, Peter (2019). "Better estimates of LCOE from audited accounts – A new methodology with examples from United Kingdom offshore wind and CCGT". Energy Policy. 128: 25–35. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.044. hdl:10059/3298.

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